“The Mindset Is That It’s Ours” – F2 Logistics’ Kalei Mau

After a luckless season, Kalei Mau vowed to do everything to help F2 Logistics in its trek back to the throne of the Philippine Superliga All-Filipino Conference.

Mau, Filipino-American spiker from Arizona, claimed to be on a mission as the Cargo Movers head into crucial Game 2 of their best-of-three finals series against Cignal.

This could be Mau’s first title in the country’s premier women’s volleyball league that has Team Rebel Sports, SOGO, Eurotel, PCSO, Cocolife, UCPB Gen, Mueller, Senoh, Asics, Bizooku and One Sport as sponsors.

She arrived here last year and played for United VC which failed to get past the semifinals.

Now she has a golden chance of becoming a champion as the Cargo Movers enjoy a 1-0 edge over the HD Spikers in this battle that also has ESPN5 and Kapatid TV5 as broadcast partners.

“I want it more than anything,” said Mau, who played as starting open spiker for the Arizona Wildcats in the US National Collegiate Athletic Association.

“The mindset is that it’s ours. Every opportunity we get, every set I get, I’m going to put it down because we’re not playing around. The stakes are high and I’m excited to get my first title.”

True enough Mau has been doing everything to help the Cargo Movers snap its three-year title drought in the All-Filipino.

She erupted for 27 points carry the Cargo Movers to a 25-22, 26-24, 18-25, 17-25, 15-8 victory in Game 1 over the weekend at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Prior to that she served as the biggest threat in offense when the Cargo Movers raced to a 12-2 win-loss mark in the preliminaries before creaming Sta. Lucia in the quarterfinals and Foton in the semifinals.

Still she knows that prevailing over Cignal will never be easy.

“Cignal is not going down without a fight. And they did a really good job coming back and pressing us, and challenging us,” said Mau who is clashing with close friend and former United VC teammate Alohi Robins-Hardy of the HD Spikers.

“I know Alohi was kind of quiet in the first two, that wasn’t her. I told my team that ‘hey look, they’re gonna get beaten in three. Tonight, they gonna come harder in the third set so we gotta play even harder.’”

“I think my team– we have to control what we can control. We could have minimized a lot of our errors and you know all we gotta do is learn from this and we gotta move on come the next game.”

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With such a star-studded roster, Petron proved that hard work and sacrifice would lead to a fluid chemistry and eventually, back to the title.

“It’s been two years since the last time we tasted the crown,” said Molina, who is one of the two remaining players from the Petron squad that won the All-Filipino crown two years ago. “We wanted it very badly. We were hungry and determined to win.”

“This is our contribution to grassroots volleyball,” said Juico, adding that they would also implement all existing PSL rules and allow college players to use tablet and challenge system during actual competition.

“Since we want to prepare these college players for what lies ahead in the PSL and the national team, we’re more than willing to give them valuable experiences on how it feels playing in the league. The earlier they start, the better for their respective volleyball careers.”